Tolerence: Religious Ideal or Hippie Mantra

In my experience, those who speak out about great pitfalls of organized religion are often sucked into mindsets of intolerance of which they accuse religions to possess.

It is no great secret that many unjust acts (war, discrimination, torture, persecution, execution, etc.) have been carried out in the name of religion. Christianity, Islam, Jeudism, and many other organized religous groups have all been misused and misinterpreted at times to justify the weak, selfish, and corrupt acts of religious zealots.

But we, who are here and now, are shouldered not only with the burdens of the past, but the decisions of the present which will impact the future. Religion is not going to go away--at least not in our lifetime.

Should there be religious tolerance? Yes. But there should be tolerance for religion too.

I witnessed an interaction with college aged students (18-24 year) not all that long ago that illustrates this point. The group was having a discussion and a young man jokingly called a local politician a, “pink-o commie bas*ard.” Two young women in the group, abruptly turned on the author of the comment and vehemently defended the tenets of Marxism, preaching tolerance and acceptance of people, and ending with an assertion to the effect of, ‘if there was more communism in the world it would be a much more tolerant place.’ The young man was stunned to silence due to the vigor of the outburst and the conversation returned to more neutral topics.

Not an hour later the two women who launched the pro-tolerance sermon, engaged in a rather unfair and lengthy roast of Christianity and all Christians. The excessive criticism expressed by these young women caused many in the group to take pause at the severity. The discussion ended in one of the young women performing a very off color impression of someone with downs syndrome.

I find this situation, while extreme, to illustrate the growing mentality slated toward a fundamental call to tolerance – with a stark exception of tolerance toward Christianity and those who adhere to the more ‘traditional’ Christian worldviews. As illustrated by this situation, the young women felt very strongly about tolerance for non-Christian religious groups, any ethnic and racial groups (other than European Caucasians), and anyone who seeks a spiritual existence outside of religion – but somehow considered Christians an exception to the tolerance rule.

The reality is that not all Christians are redneck bigots, any more than all Muslims are terrorists, any more than all rappers are dangerous gangsters, any more than all democrats are hippies, any more than …

Do you see my point?

Tolerance goes both ways.

For those who want to practice a more spiritual existence outside of religion, more power to them. Not my choice, but I support their right of free expression. One of this country’s greatest founding principles is religious freedom. But to criticize and ostracize those who adhere to traditional Christianity, or Judaism, or the tenants of Islam just because they practice a religion is to be equally as judgmental and intolerant.

Young people who adhere to the more traditional religions are increasingly being made to feel as though they should be on the defensive. Is this justice?

There are those who will, of course, throw in my face a litany of atrocities committed in the name of religion. Admittedly, there are many. But upon deeper reflection and study, I would wager a guess that the abuses of power that happen under the banner of religion are still products of human weakness. And let us all remember that there are very, very few large human organizations that don’t have dark moments in their history.

The reality is that most traditional world religions at their core preach peace, justice, compassion, reconciliation, and tolerance.

And these, we can call agree upon are some of the fundamental tenants of a just society.